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Re: Calculating Angle to fire at
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Originally Posted by seanwitte
Theres nothing wrong with that approach, but time is a finite resource and it is not the hardest problem here. It seems to me there are two very difficult problems involved:
1) Build a contraption that consistently shoots the balls at roughly the same speed (and hopefully direction!)
2) Build a gimbal mount that can be quickly and accurately positioned to control the launch angle for the gizmo in part 1.
I think part 2 will be the deal breaker for most teams. Moving an appendage is one thing, but this requires tight tolerances to make it work.
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The KISS rule probably applies here (as in most things in life).
You need to understand the relative complexity of items #1 (consistent speed) vs. #2 (agile and accurate gimbal mechanism) and factor in the relative importance of 1 vs. 2. It seems to me that unless you plan to alter the launch angle based on the launch velocity on the current shot, #2 is not very important. If you shoot the ball at fixed angle and consistent speed, you should be able to deliver the ball in the proper height over a rather large range from the goal. I think that's the key in this game.
Hint: play around with the Excel spreadsheet I posted earlier in this thread, now attached below with a minor correction. I now divide by 8 in the drag factor parameter instead of multiplying by 0.12 8 (obviously I meant to multiply 0.125 in the original version...2% error - my bad!)
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Last edited by David Brinza : 12-01-2006 at 00:13.
Reason: Attached revised Excel spreadsheet
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